It was a case of stiff upper lips, waterproofs and wellies as people ventured out for various charity events in the area.

Stubbington Fayre, which has been drawing the crowds for more than 40 years, went ahead.

Unfortunately the Donkey Derby and some of the performances including gymnastics were casualties of the bad weather, as it was deemed unsafe for them to go ahead.

Nevertheless, crowds braved the non-stop rain to take in about 120 stalls and admire the Minis and classic cars on display as well as enjoying fairground activities and rides on Tigger the Train.

23/8/2014 (BF)
The South Downs Show took place on Saturday at Queen Elizabeth Country Park.
Pictured is: Keith Nisbit (49) from Clanfield, with his daughter Mollie-Ann Nisbet (14) and their two Leonberger dogs (l-r) Elsie and Baxter, at the South Downs Show.
Picture: Sarah Standing (142500-4121) PPP-140824-171531001

Christine Asquith had been up since 6.45am yesterday and by 3pm was still staying strong out in the rain.

She said; ‘We’ve enjoyed it. It’s been nice going round. The stall holders have been very, very supportive.’

23/8/2014 (BF)
The South Downs Show took place on Saturday at Queen Elizabeth Country Park.
Pictured is: Brian Page from Simply Garlic at the show.
Picture: Sarah Standing (142500-4165) PPP-140824-172017001

He added: ‘This is the first time in my experience since 1998 that it’s rained all day like this.’

Meanwhile, at Stokes Bay in Gosport the annual car rally – which has now been going for more than 50 years and raises cash for the Mayor of Gosport’s charities – went ahead as planned and attracted more than 20 cars.

They ranged from Ford Cortinas to Land Rovers and 4x4s.

The PA and music was provided by Radio Haslar and organiser Brian Russell was optimistic about future events.

25/8/2014 (SA)
The Emsworth Show took place on Bank Holiday Monday at Emsworth Recreation Ground.
Pictured is: Wendda Knapp (56) from Emsworth, with her first prize WW2 street party celebration cakes.
Picture: Sarah Standing (142506-4539) PPP-140825-163959001

Mr Russell said: ‘You’ve got to be positive. We’ve been going now for 55 years. We have only had to cancel completely once.

‘All in all we have been very, very fortunate.’

He added: ‘Unfortunately a lot of the entrants chose not to turn up. I guess if you’ve got a vintage car in pristine condition the last thing you want to do is take it out in terrible weather.

‘But we’ve got a lot of Ford Cortinas and the biggest class has been the Wessex Off-Roaders – Land Rovers and 4x4s.

‘They do a charitable service as well as attending shows. They are called out in bad weather to take doctors and nurses to hospital and help people.’

At the Emsworth Show, visitors sought refuge from the rain under canvasses and in a marquee, which hosted displays including home-grown horticultural products, craftwork, baking and photography.

25/8/2014 (SA)
The Emsworth Show took place on Bank Holiday Monday at Emsworth Recreation Ground.
Pictured is: Paul Gray (63) from GMG Falconry, with Bertie the four year old European Eagle Owl.
Picture: Sarah Standing (142506-4571) PPP-140825-164013001

Show chairman Colin Falla, 49, of Emsworth, said the show attracted about 2,000 visitors, down from the usual figure of 6,500.

He said: ‘Not as many people turned up as normal, but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.’

Peter Rogers, 21, of Emsworth, sealed the title of Emsworth Champion Gardener for his collection of veg and flowers.

Mr Rogers said he had been a keen gardener since he was five years old and had 71 entries at the Emsworth Show.

He said: ‘It’s quite a challenge because a lot of growers are either very good with flowers or very good with vegetables, so you have to meet somewhere in the middle.’

Wendda Knapp, 56, of Emsworth, won a ‘World War Two street party’ category for her five of her cupcakes, as well as four other baking awards.

She said: ‘I’m tickled pink because I didn’t win anything last year and now I’ve got five firsts.

‘It was a whole weekend spent baking and the kitchen looks like it was hit by a bomb.’

Emsworth Horticultural Society member Sarah Sanderson said: ‘It’s quite astonishing what people have managed to grow.

‘It really is a phenomenal amount of hard work.’

A Havant Rotary Club tent, a display of birds of prey, vintage cars, and a home-made jam stall were among the attractions. Emsworth couple Val Ottewell, 69, and her husband Colin were among the visitors who went along to the show despite the rain. She said: ‘We were determined to make it because they put so much effort into these shows.’

The South Downs Show drew crowds to Queen Elizabeth Country Park over the weekend to watch sheep herding, falconry and ponies in the main arena.

Keith Nisbet, 49, was with his partner Cheryl Cantrill, 47, and his 14-year-old daughter Mollie-Ann.

The trio, from Clanfield, were out on Saturday with their huge Leonberger German breed dogs Elsi and Baxter.

Keith said: ‘They haven’t held this for a number of years – it’s nice to see it back again.’

Mollie-Ann added: ‘It’s very interesting, there’s a lot of stuff to do.’

Children watched with wonder as falcons soared high in the blue skies before swooping down over the youngster’s heads to attack their prey offered by the birds’ trainers.

Five-year-old Edward Nayler, from Haslemere. Surrey, was in the arena with his sisters Isabel, seven, and Martha, five.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Portsmouth News provides news, events and sport features from the Portsmouth area. For the best up to date information relating to Portsmouth and the surrounding areas visit us at Portsmouth News regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Portsmouth News requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.